ZnO nanorods on Si substrates were prepared by either a two-steps chemical bath deposition (CBD) method or thermal evaporation technique. 11 was found that the effective decay time of the near bandgap recombinations strongly depends on the method, which was used to grow the ZnO nanorods. ZnO nanorods grown by the CBD exhibit characteriristic two-exponential decay curves, while ZnO nanorods grown by thermal evaporation technique show single exponential decays. The experimental results show that the fast exponential decay from the CBD grown ZnO nanorods is related to the surface recombination, while the slow decay is related to the "bulk" decay. The results also show that an annealing treatment around 500 degrees C to 700 degrees C significantly reduces the surface recombination rate.